Lapid calls on Netanyahu to personally handle disappearance of Haymanut Kasau

By Ariela Karmel

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25 February 2026, 3:24 pm

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Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid addresses the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, February 23, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says on the second anniversary of 9-year-old Haymanut Kasau’s disappearance that the Prime Minister’s Office must directly oversee the investigation.

“The search for Haymanut must be conducted by the Prime Minister’s Office under Netanyahu’s personal supervision,” says the Yesh Atid chairman before the plenum, with Kasau’s family and other supporters protesting in the gallery holding signs with her face.

“When I was prime minister, cases of especially serious violence went to the Prime Minister’s Office and we handled them in the cabinet,” continues Lapid, who served in the role for six months in 2022.

Neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor any other senior member of government or the coalition has said anything today regarding Kasau, who was last seen on February 25, 2024 in Safed on security camera footage at 7:45 p.m. Little to no progress has been made in Kasau’s case over the past two years.

Netanyahu met with the family last month in his office, and vowed to get “personally” involved in the case.